Frédéric Vervisch: “The rest of the circuits should suit us”

Comtoyou Racing scored well if not threatening the podium in the last two rounds of the TCR International Series at the Hungaroring and Oschersleben, the driver Frédéric Vervisch hopes the tough circuits for the Audi-equipped team are behind them as the cars head to Asia.

Vervisch drove through from the back of the grid in both races, and handed over his position to team-mate Stefano Comini in Race 2 who went on to finish in fifth, with the Swiss in contention for his third title, just nine points behind points leader Jean-Karl Vernay, while Vervisch plays a support role after missing the first two races.

“From qualifying to race day, we did a really good job,” said Vervisch to TouringCarTimes.

“In the second race, I let Comini past so he could try and score as many points as possible, so we’ve recovered quite well,” he added.

Vervisch battled the Team WRT Volkswagen of Vernay’s team-mate Jaap van Lagen during the second race, which slowed up the Dutchman and allowed Comini to bypass both of them and go on to take fifth, a good recovery after qualifying in a lowly 18th on the grid.

“It was important that I could take (van Lagen’s) position away so I could help Stefano, but he defended well, so it was not so easy to overtake him,” explained Vervisch. “After that I didn’t want to lose too much time so I let Stefano pass me, and then van Lagen and (Attila) Tassi put each other out and so I gained two places there.”

The TCR International Series now heads to the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand, before going on to Zhejiang in China then the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates, all circuits which should favour the performance of the team’s Audi RS 3 LMS.

“The rest of the circuits in general should suit our car, so for us, Comtoyou Racing, championship-wise it should be OK. We also made a good weekend out of what should have been a bad one in Germany, with the Hondas not scoring, and Vernay only scoring in Race 2.”